Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-12-12
ABOUT SMALL THINGS.
DR. TALMAGB'S TABERNACLE DISCOURSE
YESTERDAY.
Strainlng at a Gnat and Swallowing a Camel
The Prince Of Inconsistencies
Persons Who are Engaged in Max
ing Much Ado About Nothing.
Special Telegram 10 the Register.

BROOKLYN, December 1l.-To-night
the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, d. D.,
preached at the Tabernacle, this city. His
text was: "Ye blind guides, which strain
at a guat, and swallow a camel. Mat
thew 1924. The eloquent preacher said;
A proverb is compact wisdom, knowl-
edge in chunks, a library in sentence,
the electricity of many clouds discharged
in one bolt, river put through mill
race. When Christ quotes the proverb OF
of the text, He means to set forth the lu-
dicrous behavior of those who make a
great bluster about small sins and have no
appreciation of great ones.
In my text small insect and large
quadruped are brought into comparison
a gnat and a camel. You have in museum
or on the desert seen the latter, a great
awkward, sprawling creature, with back
two stories high, and stomach having a
collection of reservoirs for desert travel,
an animal forbidden to the Jews
as food, and in many literatures
entitled 1.-THE ship of the desert" ." The
gnat spoken OF in the text is in the grub
form. 1t is born in pool or pond, after a
few weeks becomes chrysalis, and then
after few days becomes the grat as we
recognize it But the insect spoken of IN
the text is in its very smallest shape, and
it yet inhabits the water-for my text is a
misprint and ought to read strain out a
gnat."
My text shows you the prince of incOn-
sistencies. A man after long observation
has formed the suspicion that in cup OF
water he is about to drink, there is grub
or the grandparent Of guat. He goes and
gets sieve or strainer. He takes the wa
ter and pours it through the sieve
in the broad light. lie says: -
would rather do anything almost
than drink this water until this lava be
extirpated." This water is brought under
inquisition The experiment is success
ful. The water rushes through the sieve
and leaves against the side Of the sieve the
grub or knat. Then the man carefully re-
moves the insect and drinks the water in
placidity. But going out one day, and
hungry, he devours ship of the desert, "
the camel, which the Jews were forbidden
to eat. The astronomer ha1 no compunc-
tiOns OF conscience. He suffers from no
indigestion. lie puts the lower jaw under
the came's fOrefoot, and his upper jaw
over the hump Of the camels back, and
gives one swallow and the dromedary dis
appears forever. He strained out a gnat,
he swallowed camel.
While Christ's audience were yet smil.
ing at the appositeness and wit of His
illustratiOn-iOr
SMILE THEY DID IN CHURCH,
unless they were too stupid to understand
the hyperbOle-ChrIst practically said TO
them, That is yOu," Punctilious about
small things; reckless about affairs of
great magnitude. No subject ever with
cred under a surgeons knife more bitterly
than did the Pharisees under Christ's
scalpel of truth. As an anatOmist will
take human body to pieces and put them
under 4 microscope for examination, so
Christ finds his way to the heart OF the
dead Pharisee and cuts it out aud puts it
under the glass of inspection for all gener-
ations to examine. These Pharisees
thought that Christ would tlatter them
and compliment them, and how they must
have wrlthed under the red hot words as
he said, ''Ye fools, ye whitened sepul-
chres, ye blind guides, which strain out a
guat and swallow camel"
There are in our day great many gnats
strained out and great many camels
swallowed, and it is the object Of this ser
mon to sketch few persons who are reexten-
sively engaged in that business.
First: remark, that all those ministers
of the Gospel are photographed in the text
who are very scrupulouS about the con-
ventionalities Of religion, but put no peCul-
lar stress upon matters of vast importance.
Church services ought TO be grave and
solemn. There is no room for lrivolity in
religious convocation But there are illus
trations and there are hyperboles like that
Of Christ in the text that will irradiate
with smiles any intelligent auditory.
There are men like those blind guides OF
the text who advocate only those things in
religious service which draw the corners Of
the mouth down, and denounce all those
things which have tendency to draw the
corners of the mouth up, and these men
will 70 to installations and to presbyterIes
and to conferences aud to associations,
their pockets full Of fine
SIEvES TO STRAIN OJT THE GNATS,
while in their own churches at home every
Sunday there are fifty people sound asleep.
They make their churches q great dormi-
tory, and their somuiferous sermons are
cradle, and the drawled out hymns lul-
laby, while some wakeful soul in a pew
with her fan keeps the flies off unconscious
persons approximate. Now, ! say it is
worse to sleep in church than TO smile in
church, for the latter implies at least at.
tention, while the former implies the in
difference of the hearers and the stupidity
of the speaker. In old age. or frem phys
ical infrmity, or from long watching with
the sick, drowsineSs will sometimes over
power one; but when a minister of the
Gospel looks off upon an audience and
finds healthy and intelligent people strug-
Cling with drOwsiness il is time for him to
give out the doxology or pronounce the
benedictiOn. The great fault of church
services to-day is not too much vivacity,
but too much somnolence. The one is an
irritating gnat that may be easily strained
out; the other is a great sprawling and
sleepy eyed camel of the dry desert. In
all our Sunday Schools, in all our Bible
classes, in all our pulpits, we need to
brighten up our religious message with
such Christ-like vivacity as We find in the
text.
take down from my library the bio
grapbies Of ministers and writers of past
ages, inspired and uninspired, who have
done the most to bring souls to Jesus
Christ, and / find that without single
exception they consecrated their wit and
their humor to Christ. Elijah used il
when he advised the Bsalites, as they
could not make their God respond; telling
them to call louder as their god might be
sound asleep or gone hunting Job used
it when he said to his self-conceited COM
forters, Wisdom will die with you"
Christ not only used it in the text, hut
when he ironically complimented
The PUTREFIED PHARISEEs,